Junior Designer (Human-Centered Design)

Who are we?

ThinkPlace is a global strategic design and innovation firm working with leaders to create new and better futures vibrant communities, strong economies, sustainable environments, and trusted institutions. ThinkPlace is a dynamic, diverse team of designers. We draw on various methodologies, including human-centered design and design thinking, behavioral insights and social psychology, linguistic anthropology, and Ethnography, to understand human behavior deeply. We do this to ensure our design solutions meet local needs and are contextually appropriate and highly scalable. ThinkPlace is looking to hire a full-time Junior Designer (Business Designer) in our Ethiopia studio.

Who are we looking for?

Business Designers are expected to demonstrate personal leadership, embrace learning from others, and lead their self-development by identifying and pursuing areas of interest.

As a Business Designer, you are expected to:

• Work directly withthe project lead and strategic designers collaboratively in small teams during the execution of project work, and run some tasks independently.
• Undertake fieldwork with supervision from Strategic Designers, often in rural areas. Fieldwork can includedesign research, designing and prototyping new products/services, and supporting strategic design activities.
• Seeksupport, guidance, and resources to complete your work (deliverables in particular) on time, at a high standard, and on specification.
• Coach and develop others, create a learning-by-doing culture through teamwork, and provide opportunities for growth and skill transfer to ensure continuity and sustainability.
• Contribute to the culture and growthof the Studio by participating and contributing to internal BGB (Building a good business) projects that lead to the improvement of our own processes and practices.
• Contribute to the organization's growth by ensuring stunning execution of current work and embracing a culture of excellence in all the deliverables.

What will you be doing?

You will work closely with the Project lead and Strategic designers to:

• Prepare and plan for immersive research activities, including designing innovative research methods, lines of inquiry, and field plan design.
• Prepare and plan for prototyping activities, including facilitating ideation workshops, developing concepts, and building and testing prototypes.
• Support the execution of behavioral and user research initiatives and constantly be involved with the teams and communities to design the best experiences possible for our users.
• Participate in the analysis and communication of research results to key stakeholders.
• Participate in generating tactical and strategic insights and actionable recommendations from the research conducted.
• Participate in the documentation and preparation of reports after delivering key project activities.
• Participate in weekly and monthly planning and reporting meetings.

Minimum Qualifications

• Strong written and spoken fluency in English. Oromo / Somali / Afar languages will be an added advantage.
• Strong field research ability and writing ability
• Strong coordination and organizing skills
• Excellent interpersonal abilities and communication skills